Hello folks,
Apologies if this has been discussed already but why are the Government spending so much on the new Stingray (dopey name) cameras, ostensibly to catch tax disc dodgers, when they already have this information at the DVLA.
All registered cars are "registered": all cars registered but off road should have declared SORN (off road notice): they know the ones who have not declared SORN because they tell us we commit an offence if we do not declare SORN and we will be fined. They can find us just by checking their database for registered but untaxed cars.
If an unregistered car is photographed, they don't know the owner so can't prosecute. Of course they could ask police to look out for the car if is unregistered but that already applies to Gatso photos.
So what are the new cameras *really* for?
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The current system:
Declare SORN, Drive car, drive anywhere except Tower Bridge* and
get away with it.
The Stingray System
Declare SORN, Get seen on the road, letter in the post.
* Tower Bridge Approach (on my daily walk from the station to the office)
is the only place where I've ever seen police + DVLA pulling cars over with expired or no tax discs. I've also seen Customs & Excise dipping tanks.
Must have happened about 4 times this year.
/john
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Ah! It seems that the genius who dreamed up the SORN sytem has actually made it harder to find tax dodgers. Previously a glance at the database would reveal all. ( Apart from unregistered, of course)
Is it thought that there are more people who would declare SORN and then drive the car than there are those would park the car and not use it?
Cheers
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I find it hard to believe. After all, that would be illegal, wouldn't it?
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Kinda like the TV detector vans with cool ariels all over it that could not only read the 'signals' from a non-transmitting device but also tell you what channel you were watching and where it was in the house.
Hmm yeah right, how about just looking at the electoral register and assuming that everyone has a TV "only weirdo's don't have TV's etc.."
A friend of mine had them demanding to come into her house 3 times over 5 years because she didn't have a licence because more importantly, she didn't have a TV, which the TV licence people just couldn't bring themselves to believe.
Cue: Picture of Dan walking down off-topic lane mumbling to himself..
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i used to have this problem as i went about 10 years without a tv of my own, youd be amazed at the threats the authorities make, and forms they demand you fill in at regular intervals (i didnt cos i didnt see why i should have to)...
the system isnt really set up to be nice to honest citizens without a tv...
another group of honest citizens targeted by stupid officialdom, while lots of real licence evaders seem to get away with it year in year out...
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I had the same trouble with the plonkers. I buy, renovate and sell properties in North Wales. The times I have had threats that if I dont' buy a TV licence for the empty property, I will be shot in the neck.
Then I had a threat from the local Council because I had not registered to vote in an area in which I did not live.
Threat said, " If you don't register, No vote , No voice, No video"
I presume the last was a reference to lack of credit worthiness if not on the register of the town in which I did not live. Cheeky *************'s
Imagine a poor pensioner thinking they were going to have their video confiscated?
Big brother watches the good folks but the thugs run amongst us like foxes through chickens. Have I gone off message?
Cheers
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Stingray cameras, what for ? Same as all the others, revenue raising.
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I know this post is totally off topic but it's relevant to the above.
In the days of the poll tax we moved house, wrote a letter to the old council saying we have moved, got a closing account receipt all hunky dory, or so we thought.
6 months later got a letter at the new place from the old council, Sheffield City BTW, saying that we now owed 50% rate poll tax for the old place as it was a second home.
Me; But I don't own that place anymore as you well know re my letter of the etc etc
Sheffield; Well nobody has since registered at that address so you do.
Conversation rattled back and forward a few times and got to the point where court proceedings were about to start because a) I would not pay poll tax for a house I no longer owned and b) could not tell them the original address of the people who did now live there.
Only a legal threat to counter sue and a suggestion that they knock on the front door to see who actually did live there cured the problem.
And on not having a telly, I too lived for years without a box and the TV bods just could not believe that I did not have a telly. However they were not amused when I eventually got a telly and there must have been one of the regular cards already in the post. So when I answered the question do you have a colour or black and white TV with neither its grey with silver knobs, official sense of humour very much lacking.
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Have to really...
I kept getting pay now or never be able to afford a holiday again letters, and the thing is, l did own a whacking great TV and a video but couldn't get a signal.
I eventually wrote back huffy style and said l used the setup for home cinema purposes and if they liked they cold come round and try and tune it in for me then l'd gladly pay the fee. I also used the opportunity to make a complaint about the way they seemed to infer that even owning a TV or just a VCR was illegal without a licence. (Which it isn't only using it to receive terrestrial transmissions).
I got the most grovellingly apologetic letter back (phrases like "we do not mean to harass or annoy" and "we hope this is acceptable to you etc..") which l framed and still possess to this day. They never bothered me again.
Dan
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There have been cameras as you enter the City of London for some time. These are anti terrorist devices but are linked to DVLA and are used by police to read No plates and see if a car is stolen/suspicious. Therefore I think Stingray is a waste of money since the existing cameras work already.
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Incidentally, it is perfectly possible to tell what you're watching on TV. The detector reads the signal in the tube of the TV. This was a problem in the early days of banks having computers: it was possible to read people's financial information from a van waiting outside if the monitor was close enough to the window.
Chris
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